Microsoft Bing has announced that it has entered into a multi year alliance with social media analytics provider Klout.

Under Bings ‘People You Know’ social sidebar, released in May 2012, Klout scores will appear alongside social data from Facebook, Twitter, Quora and Foursquare.

Microsoft has agreed to provide additional search data to Klout to enhance Klout scores and recognise a persons influence.

Credit: Bing

Joe Fernandez CEO and co-founder of Klout announced the news on the Klout blog yesterday. He said:

‘I am proud to announce that Microsoft has made a strategic investment in Klout and that we have signed a multi-year agreement where Bing will become one of Klout’s most significant partners’.

Bing has been interested in the growth of the social web for some time and recognises the value of online identity to return better search results. It has been releasing tweaks and announcing partner alliances to advance its social search strategy and people centric search goals.

When people with a Klout profile are searched for on Bing they will see their Klout profile increase in line with the number of searches carried out on them. Klout will become a social influence indicator with visual signals displayed in the Bing sidebar.

Searchers in the US will then be able to connect with the experts on the topics they are searching for -- such as social media, branding and coffee (my current Klout influential topics).

Fernandez said:

‘Experts who appear in Bing’s “People Who Know” section of the sidebar will be recognized on Klout. Influencers who have a Wikipedia account associated with their Klout profile will also be rewarded for the frequency that they are searched for on Bing’.

Interestingly, Bing will also begin to display Bing highlights on Klout profiles for some users. This could show how influential you are on Klout topics such as social media, branding and coffee).

Bing said that it is the first time that Bing has been used in this way.

Adding highlights to profiles of people that are regularly searched for in Bing will change the way that social influencers are recognised. Bing reckons that it is an ‘interesting new development in the way we think about big data and how it can add value’.